Free Republic

John Boehner is planning to unveil a set of Republican principles for immigration reform before President Obama's State of the Union address, aiming to show the GOP is not hostile to legislation that might win them Hispanic voters. -snip if leadership's principles receive some positive feedback, Goodlatte, Cantor, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., could advance legislation they have discussed for the last several months. As yet, there is no legislative language drafted, however. Cantor and Goodlatte have talked about a path to citizenship for undocumented "dreamers" who came to this country as kids. Even Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., is discussing...

Hopes for undocumented immigrants stranded in political limbo will have to wait at least another year. In a wide-ranging interview on congress’s next session, Representative Darrell Issa, who drafted the high-skilled version of immigration reform, says there’s too much “animosity” on the issue within the government to find a meaningful compromise before the next election. “Comprehensive immigration reform is hard to do with the best environment between the executive branch between the House and Senate. We don’t have the best opportunity,” he explains. “if we can find a compromise that is bi-partisan on the 11 million [undocumented workers], I think...

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Chairman of the Economic Growth Subcommittee, sent a harsh letter to Attorney General Holder Wednesday accusing the Department of Justice of abusing its power and intimidating banks through its "Operation Choke Point." In the letter, Issa and Jordan stated, "[t]he [House Oversight and Government Reform] Committee is concerned that both the goal and mechanisms of Operation Choke Point may constitute a serious mismanagement and abuse of the Department´s FIRREA [Financial Institution Reform and Recovery Act of 1989] authority." Breitbart News broke the

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in 2014 will pursue the IRS scandal, the deadly Benghazi attack and the botched Fast and Furious operation in what will likely be his last year as the House GOP's chief investigator. Issa sounded a cautionary note that the investigations might not conclude while he has the gavel. “The administration wraps up investigations. We are done when we are done … there shouldn’t be any sort of effort to load in or unload" before his term limit of six years as the top Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee ends in December. Rep. John...

It may come next week or maybe six months from now, but House Republicans will decisively determine whether to kill immigration reform or make a real attempt at passing it. No one would be surprised if Speaker John Boehner chose the former option. But the longer Boehner takes to decide, the more ground he cedes to states dominated by single party politics and eager to craft immigration laws in the face of a crippled Congress. Congressional inaction has left millions of families increasingly living in two parallel universes. Republican-run states turn cops into border patrol agents and cut undocumented immigrants...

Twelve-year-old Jason Penate spent the holidays hanging close by his father. They picked out a Christmas tree and decorated the front window of their Gainesville, Va., home with candy canes, and Jason tried very hard not to think about whether his father would still be here in the new year. Jorge Penate, a Guatemalan national who came to the United States illegally in 1997, has a hearing scheduled Monday that will determine whether he can stay in the country. A drunken driving arrest two years ago launched deportation proceedings and cast his family’s future into uncertainty.Jason wrote a letter to...

The Talk Shows December 29th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Democratic former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Gen. Michael Hayden, Former National Security Agency Director; NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake.THIS WEEK (ABC): A look at game changers in 2013 (I can’t help thinking it’s Auburn running back Chris Davis).STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Secretary of State John Kerry. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Neera Tanden, president and CEO of...

In his press conference on December 20th, President Obama urged the House of Representatives to support the Senate’s immigration bill, which passed 68-32 in late June. Among the concerns cited by Americans who oppose reform are that immigrants will take their jobs, drive down wages, increase criminal activity, burden the welfare system, and reshape the cultural dynamic of the country. These concerns are mostly ill-founded. The legitimate concerns have real solutions, and a more open immigration policy will be a net benefit for all Americans... Highlights from Article: - A 2013 study by the American Action Forum states that "immigration...

Above: Bob Clark, director of classic "A Christmas Story",and his son were killed by a drunk illegal alien on 4/4/2007. by John HillFor many Americans, Christmas means something else besides faith, family, food (and presents). It means movies: It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol (pick one), Miracle on 34th Street. On Christmas I often watch a modern classic: A Christmas Story, the irreverent adaptation of Jean Shepherd's memoir of Christmas memories from childhood. Many of our readers also caught this extraordinary film (at least) once yesterday, as the cable network TBS shows it non-stop for 24 hours every year at Christmas....

An illegal alien suspected of causing a traffic accident and killing movie director Bob Clark, whose “A Christmas Story” has come alongside “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street” as a perennial holiday must-watch, has been placed under an immigration hold by federal authorities. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency placed the hold on Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, a Mexican national who was living in Los Angeles as an illegal immigrant, according to a report from Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee. Agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the hold means Valezquez-Nava, when his Los Angeles court proceedings...

Only the Obama Regime would have the cheek necessary to refuse action on a House subpoena by claiming it does not trust the motives of Government Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa! Concerned by widespread reports that personal information is not secure on the ObamaCare signup website HealthCare.gov, Issa’s Oversight Committee subpoenaed security testing documents from MITRE Corporation, the IT firm hired by Health and Human Services to perform Security Control Assessments of the site. Jim Esquea, HHS Assistant Secretary for Legislation wrote to Committee Chair Issa claiming HHS ( now obviously enjoying complete control over MITRE) would be delighted to...

There is one thing that is abundantly clear about President Obama. He does not like to be challenged on anything he is doing. If he sets a policy, he expects to have the final word. Thus, you can imagine how he feels about Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his chairmanship of the House Oversight Committee. From the time Issa took over the position when the Republicans won the House of Representatives in 2010, he has been focused on asking some very pointed questions of the Obama administration. He has been aided by none other than the Obama administration itself. Given...

Few in Washington want to see House and Senate negotiators strike a budget deal more than advocates for immigration reform. Their interest is not so much in the policy as the timing. The unending fiscal battles have repeatedly stolen the spotlight from immigration in the House, and the government shutdown in October sapped the legislative push of both time and political good will. With Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) taking steps to revive immigration reform, advocates now see one remaining window for action in the early part of 2014, before election season begins. But that opportunity will be lost, lawmakers and...

The House’s chief investigator says the FBI is stonewalling his inquiry into whether the agency and the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative group True the Vote for special scrutiny, and Rep. Darrell E. Issa is now threatening subpoenas to pry loose the information from FBI Director James B. Comey Jr. Mr. Issa, California Republican, and Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, are leading the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s IRS inquiry. They also said the FBI is refusing to turn over any documents related to its own investigation into the IRS, which began in the days after an auditor’s report...

Cmte. Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) holds another in a series of hearings on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the rollout of the government's healthcare website. The administration says the website will be fixed by the end of November.

The House Oversight Committee released another slew of ObamaCare documents Tuesday, calling them an "unvarnished record" of the problems facing the federal enrollment website. The 175-page trove details several meetings among federal health officials in the immediate aftermath of the site's rollout. -snip- The Oversight panel, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), highlighted portions suggesting that federal health officials were learning about some problems with the system through news reports.

Southern California Congressman Darrell Issa is rumored to be cooking up his own immigration reform proposal. It’s reportedly designed to find some middle ground in the contentious debate over providing legal status to the more than 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. -snip- The details of Issa’s plan for immigration reform are still scarce, and his office didn’t respond to numerous requests for an interview. But the plan would reportedly include a six-year period of temporary relief from deportation for undocumented immigrants. During that time, they would be expected to find a legal way to stay here or leave....

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The only remaining Republican in what had begun as a bipartisan House group working on immigration says that he is crafting legislation that would provide a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, a move likely not to sit well with some of his GOP colleagues. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, of Florida, said he and several other Republicans are working on a measure that offers some of the nation’s estimated 11 undocumented immigrants a way to “get right with the law,” according to the Wall Street Journal. -snip- Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, is working on his own bill to...

It’s not amnesty. It’s just a bill that legalizes illegal aliens and puts them on a path to citizenship. No amnesty to see here. Issa’s forthcoming legislation takes elements from similar legislation he introduced in December 2003, the Alien Accountability Act. The six-year period is intended to whittle down the undocumented immigrant population into several categories, such as immigrants with family ties to U.S. citizens or immigrants who want to participate in a guest-worker program. -snip- “If somebody has a nexus that would reasonably allow them to become permanent residents and American citizen, we should allow them to do that,”...